Spring Activities

A lot has happened since I last wrote anything.  I actually graduated!!!  I had an irrational fear that it was not actually true and that I was not really done.  But I have my piece of paper that says I have a PhD, but I cannot convince my family to call me Dr. Mom.  Oh well.  I have not been able to find a job in academia yet, but I plan on trying for a couple of more years before moving on to a different career path. 
This spring has been busy.  It seems that when children get older, a parent gets busier.
Tulip time was different this year.  I did not have to chair the quilt show and that lifted many of my responsibilities this spring.  I did have four quilts in the show.  That was all that I finished this year.  I plan on making finishing my WIPS a priority this year. The biggest quilt I finished I call Purple Peacock tails.  I really like the way this one turned out.  I came up with the color scheme before I came up with the pattern.  I quilted it on my home machine with my walking foot.

 This one is "Floral Libraries".  It was a kit that I bought at the 2012 AQS show in Des Moines.  It is okay, but not my favorite thing I have made and I did not like the way the pattern was written.  I also quilted it using my machine and walking foot.  I used an elongated zig-zag stitch and I like the way it gave the quilt some texture.

 This is a smaller quilt that I made at a quilt guild retreat.  I like the pink and brown together.

 This is a mini that I made to try several new things.  I created my own pattern in photo shop and used a product called Ricky Tims' Stiff Stuff for the foundation.  I liked the way I could run it through my printer and I did not have to rip it out when I was finished.  I also used decorative stitches as my quilting and put in prairie points.

 I also pieced the guild's raffle quilt this year.  I think we did well in ticket sales.  Linda Schminke did the quilting.  It is a pattern called "Winner's Circle" by Glad Creations.

The quilt show had a higher attendance than last year, partly because of the weather.  It was yucky outside and it drove people inside.  There was actually snow!  The parades on Thursday were canceled.  There were tears at our house because Zadok was supposed to ride on a float that night, and he was greatly disappointed when the parade was called off.  It started snowing on Thursday and we thought it would be done by that night. The kids made a Dutch snowman to keep the tulips company. 

We were surprised then on Friday morning when we woke up to this:

 The poor snowman was buried!!!  Both parades on Friday were canceled.  The weather cleared enough that there were parades on Saturday.  This is a good picture of Zadok and his teacher.

 Iris got to watch the afternoon parade from the comfort of a window!  She participated in a living window to help raise money for her trip with show choir next spring break. 

This year we had tulips, but they were not at their peak till a week after Tulip Time.  Sometimes in the middle of January, I wonder why we live here, but then spring comes and I think we live in one of the most beautiful spots there are.  I spent an afternoon just wandering around downtown taking pictures of the flowers and some of the buildings.  This is Pella's central park. 

 This is the Vermeer windmill, currently the tallest in the United States.

 This is Sunken Gardens Park and it is across from Zadok's school.  We often have to check the wooden shoe shaped pond for fish and other critters when walking home from school.

Now that winter is finally over, it is pleasant to live in Iowa again!

Finally, Some Finishes

I have done it!!!  I officially am done with my dissertation.  Everything has been turned in, I passed my oral defense, did revisions and formatted it correctly.  It ended up being over 200 pages of text and close to 250 pages with all appendices and front matter included.  I had to print it out once to get an idea of the scale of it.

 

 I am so happy to have this done!  It does feel a bit weird not to be working on something for school.  I have always been in school.  This is the first time in my life where I will NOT be a student.  My graduation is in December and I will have to post pictures of it later.

Another big event in my life is that I was a semi finalist at the AQS (American Quilters Society) Quilt Show in Des Moines.  Only around 200 quilts total were juried in, and I was privileged to have created one of those quilts. 

It was so neat to see my quilt in this venue!  I am trying to think what I can do this year that will be good enough to get in again.

Other things have happened in our lives since I last posted.  The kids have started back to school.  They are growing up so fast.  Iris played volleyball this year, and still is involved with orchestra and show choir. 

Zadok has a really good teacher this year and is enjoying 2nd grade. He is getting to be such a tall boy.   

We have also celebrated Halloween.  I decorated the outside of the house similar to last year.  Zadok went as Perry the Platypus and Nathan went as Dr. Doofenshmirtz.  I think it was a cute costume pairing. 

The cats are also doing well.  Mr. Nibbles is about as crazy as ever, and still loves sleeping in weird spots.

Don't worry this happened after a friend's baby was done using it.

I might be more regular at posting now that I do not have the dissertation looming over me.  My short term goals are to get my life back in order.  I can tell that I have let my housework slip while concentrating on the paper.  It will take a while to get everything back in shape, but that will soon happen.  I am still unclear about what I will be doing now that my degree is done.  I would still love to teach on a college level and am looking for a job.  In the meantime, clean and sort!

A Busy Summer So Far

We have been really busy so far this summer.  The last two weeks of June, we took a family vacation.  This was the first vacation that we have really been on as a family that did not involve going to stay with family.  We went to the Black Hills in South Dakota. We did so many things that it would be tough to list them all. On the way we went to the Omaha Zoo.  It was a really nice zoo.  They have an aquarium that the kids enjoyed.  It had a part that you could walk through the tunnel under the water.

They had a variety of animals running loose.

Noooo... I was not chasing that peacock....

We stopped at the Corn Palace on the drive through South Dakota.

Nathan was acting a bit "corny".

While we were driving we saw signs inviting us to feed the prairie dogs.  We ended up stopping there at least three time to feed the prairie dogs.  We all managed to get them to eat out or our hand eventually.

We stayed four nights in Spearfish South Dakota and went hiking in Spearfish Canyon.  We liked the hike to Devil's Bathtub.

We visited devils tower.

We went on other hikes, hung out at the campground, visited Deadwood, and went to the DC Booth historic fishery.

After Spearfish, we went to Custer State Park.  We stayed 6 nights there. 

While we were there we explored the park we went to Bear Country

Went to Reptile Gardens,  rode the 1880's train, saw The Cosmos

Visited Mount Rushmore

Went and saw a replica of a 500+ year old Norwegian Church in Rapid City

In the middle of the vacation we had a bit of excitement.  We were on our way to see the Mammoth Site and we were t-boned at an intersection.  Thankfully we were in the Expedition and were able to walk away from the accidents with very minor injuries.

 But, this is not what you want to have happen right in the middle of vacation.  We were stuck in Hot Springs SD for a while but eventually we got a rental and were able to finish out our vacation.
We did go back to the Mammoth Site the next day.  This is one of the few pictures with me in it.  It is a little blurry because Zadok took it, but it proved that I actually went with my family to SD.

After Custer we stayed a couple of nights in the Badlands.

While there we got to go down into one of the missile control centers from the cold war.

That was neat.  On the way back home we stopped at the 1880's town in Murdo SD
Zadok was pulled on stage to "perform" with the group.   He is the hairy guy at the cymbal.

This picture sums up Zadok pretty well.  He is trying to make the train go faster!!!

After we got home we had to deal with the insurance and unpacking everything.  I am also working top speed on the dissertation so that has been taking up most of my days.  I have not even touched my sewing machine in a month and doubt that I will till this paper is done.

Last weekend I had a neat experience.  Nathan's mother, brother, and nephews came for a visit.  It was also the Red Rock Balloon Fest.  We went for a picnic on Saturday to watch the balloons, but because of wind they did not fly.  They did a tethered glow flight that night.

The next morning, Judy and I went chasing the balloons at 6am and watched them set up for a competition flight.

We went to both drop spots and watched the balloons for a couple of hours.  It was pretty to watch 20+ balloons come over the lake.

Well off to work on the dissertation a bit more...and do a bit of car shopping.

Tulip Time Aftermath

This year's Tulip Time was an exhausting one.  Because of the early spring there was not very many tulips in bloom.  The peak was a little after Easter.  I did manage to get one picture of the tulips.

 It was difficult because of the number of tourists in the area.  This year the kids were not as involved with the parades.  Zadok was only in two.  He walked with his class in the Wednesday and Saturday afternoon parades.  Iris was in the Friday night parade walking with the Girl Scouts, even though she has not been one for a while.  All her friends were walking and I think they wanted more people to pick up trash later.  She seemed to have a good time.  It is nice that she is old enough that she does not have to be supervised the entire time.  I gave her money and she hung out with her friends.  Easy.

Zadok had to have a dutch costume for marching in the parade.  I went to the costume exchange a little late this year and all they had left was a very used costume for $65.  I did not buy it.  I went the true Dutch route and went to the thrift store and bought items and modified them.  I got a larger striped button down shirt and some baggy black pants.  Here is what the shirt looked like before...

I cut the cuffs off and straightened the bottom.  I also turned the collar in.  With the hat and the kerchief, it looked "dutchy" enough.

With hundreds of kids marching no one will notice that it is not a true dutch costume.
This gives an idea of the chaos before the parade.  I title this picture "Boys in Black Hats"

The reason that this year's Tulip Time was so busy was not because of the kids, but because I was chair of the Quilt Show Committee for our local guild.  Every year during Tulip Time the Pella Area Quilter's Guild puts on a quilt show in the Opera House.  We had over 110 entries and I was in charge of making sure that everything got done.  It basically consumed my entire April.  We had to set up frames, figure out where all the quilts would hang, hang all the quilts, keep track of all the bookwork, etc.  Whew.  I have to have a few years to forget all the work before I volunteer for that again.
I had several quilts in the show and even though I have shown most on the blog before, it is nice to have pictures of them all when they are hung nice.
This one is my favorite of the year.  Every seam is matched perfectly, the quilting is beautiful, and I love the colors.  It placed 5th in the viewer's choice for large quilts.  I called it "Cabins by the Seaside"

This one is called "Floral Chains".  It was technically hung upside down.  whoops.

"70's Film Star"

"Pixilated Blossoms"  This one was 6th in viewer's choice for large quilts

"A Quilt for Iris"

"Lilacs for Mom"

"Oriental Mystery"

"The Pond Quilt"

"Tropical Fruit Salad"  This one tied for 3rd in viewer's choice for small quilts

A new feature this year for the quilt show was a window display.  I was able to put my Grandma Top's sewing machine in the window.

Now everything is dismantled and I have a pile of quilts to figure out what to do with them all.  I cleaned off the board where I put all my cards with finished projects.  I do not think that I will get this many done for next year. 
On the family front, Nathan is in Germany this week working with Vermeer.  This is his first time over seas and I am happy for him.  I got a call this morning saying he arrived okay.  When we were packing I insisted that he take basic toiletries with him like shampoo and soap.  He insisted that the hotel would have them, but packed them anyway.  When I talked to him this morning, he said that he was glad that he packed them because the hotel he is staying in is a dead ringer for the happiness hotel from the muppets.  I hope he has a great time!